The Bottom Line: Retirement website gives you a glimpse of your future face

Imagine you could travel through time and catch a glimpse of your older, senior self. How would you look? Would you be reveling in retirement bliss or struggling to make ends meet?

The folks at Merrill Edge want to give you a glimpse of that with Face Retirement, a social tool the company launched in December that takes people's photos and ages them, giving an idea of how they will look 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 years from now.

Users select their age and gender and use a webcam to take their picture. As a person's image ages, the tool also shows statistics on how much groceries, gas and cost of living will be when he or she is at a certain age.

"It's a way to show that young people should start saving for retirement," said James Suh, regional sales manager with Merrill Edge in the South Bay region, which encompasses 49 banking centers from Santa Monica to Cerritos.

Studies show that fewer people, especially young people, are saving for retirement. About 52 percent of the mass affluent surveyed by the fall 2012 Merrill Edge Report have saved less than $250,000 for retirement. Also, 56 percent surveyed said they plan to retire later than they had one year ago, a 19 percent jump from November 2011.

Meanwhile, another survey, done by Robert Half Management Resources, shows that nearly 38 percent of CFOs said they are more unsure about when they're going to retire than they were five years ago, while another 13 percent said their plans to retire have changed from five years ago.

A fter seeing their "future" selves, wrinkles and all, people said they would put 6.75 percent of their paychecks into a 401(k), compared with 5.2 percent from those who didn't participate, according to Merrill Edge.

"People who saw age-enhanced images of themselves were more likely to save more for retirement, compared to those who weren't exposed to their future selves," Alok Prasad, head of Merrill Edge, said in a statement. "Face Retirement is designed to minimize that gap by giving consumers a preview of their future self, encouraging them to take control of long-term financial planning."

To get started on retirement, Suh suggests creating a plan for the desired lifestyle and examining how much one should save monthly. Ideally, a person should save 10 percent of his or her income. He also suggests looking into investment opportunities and consulting with a financial adviser on a quarterly basis.